Portsmouth City Council – presumably, on the basis of other announcements – are (probably) throwing even more money at early morning and late night bus services within the Portsmouth City area. With some unsurprising timetables showing up on public trackers over the last week or so, the surprise is still yet to come.
Over the last few years the various councils up and down the UK have been developing and publishing their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP) and we have seen new bus priorities, travel interchanges and cycle hubs proposed. Even back in 2020, I was talking about how Portsmouth City Council were considering new bus lanes in the City Centre, and out towards Fratton.
The funding in Portsmouth City Council’s BSIP was also to introduce some earlier and later buses for the city. We already know that First Solent are introducing many of these changes just in time for the Christmas Party season; with overnight buses to Horndean, Wecock and Portchester on weekends from 4th December. It looks like Stagecoach South have also negotiated funding for additional services from Farlington Depot as well.
The only thing that they missed – the Christmas Party rush – with these new services being introduced from Tuesday 3rd January 2023.
Service 21: Havant – Ancorage Park – Copnor – City – Gunwharf
There are new weekday morning departures which start from Havant at 0415 and 0450 from Gunwharf Quays. Some services which start from Farlington, Walton Road (near to the Stagecoach South bus depot) will be extended back to start at Havant or Gunwharf.
There are new Saturday morning departures towards The Hard, with the first service leaving Walton Road at 0546. From Gunwharf the first bus leaves at 0540.
Service 21 will also see additional evening services, with buses every half an hour Monday to Saturday until the last buses at 2200 (from Havant) and 2307 (from Gunwharf).
The Friday & Saturday late night buses will leave Havant for Portsmouth at 2230 and 2300. Presumably these were dead runs from Havant back the depot(?) – The return trips will leave Gunwharf at 2337, then every 30 minutes to 0107 with all four trips terminating at Bedhampton Forty Acres.
Service 23: Leigh Park – Havant – Cosham – City – Gunwharf – Southsea
There are new weekday morning departures at 0424 from Bedhampton Forty Acres to Southsea, and 0428 Leigh Park to Southsea. Existing departures up to the 0528 from Leigh Park are also revised.
In the other direction there is a new 0435 Southsea to Leigh Park, and the existing 0545 Cosham to Leigh Park will now start at South Parade Pier at 0510.
On Saturday mornings, there will be a new 0536 Bedhampton to Southsea and 0540 Leigh Park to Southsea. There is also a new 0550 from Southsea to Leigh Park.
There is also a more general change to the timetable for the Saturday service on the 23. This injects up to 10 minutes extra running time into some parts of the timetable and over the course of the day feels like there might have been a very small number of trips lost.
There are more evening buses Monday to Saturday though, with the last bus from Southsea now 2355, and running though to Leigh Park on weekdays.
The Friday & Saturday late night buses will leave Leigh Park at 2335 and 0005 and the return trips will leave Southsea at 0025 and 0055 for Leigh Park, and 0125 to Bedhampton Forty Acres only.
Following on from my last post about the extended First Solent services in the Portsmouth area, there were questions raised by some in the comments and on social media.
With most of the companies (at some of the depots) suffering with driver shortages and now customers complaining across social media at missing and cancelled buses; I do wonder whether there will be consistency running these new additional buses.
DVLA of course, are proposing strike action alongside many of their civil service colleagues. This is likely to slow down processing and approvals for new bus drivers. To be fair though, they have effectively been on strike by working from home for the last few years… and not being able to take much work home with them.
These are Portsmouth City Council funded enhancements though, certainly that is what it looks like anyway, so whether this would mean they are more of a priority remains to be seen. I say exactly the same about First Solent as well, as they go through days of having shortages, so whether this puts added strain onto the daytime commercial service will be interesting to see.
With the later evening 21 service coming up, this will return the 21 service to how it was about a decade & a bit ago with the last departures from Havant & The Hard after 2200
I am surprised there is not an earlier 20 for QA though.
Yes – good point that. Perhaps as there’s never been early 20’s no one thought of it?